A one-day series of online talks and workshops from world-leading experts

Why did the threshold of a house matter so much? What did people actually believe when they blessed a home, marked a season, or warned a child away from a fairy fort? And what does any of it tell us about the Ireland they were living in?

Irish folklore has never been more visible, in film, music, fantasy writing and tourism, yet the beliefs behind it are usually treated as decoration. In reality it was a working system. It explained illness, weather and misfortune, it sat alongside formal religion rather than against it, and it shaped how ordinary households ran.

This new online summit covers the whole span, from the myths and legends people still know by name to the quieter beliefs that ran through ordinary houses. Bringing together historians and folklorists, we'll explore what people believed, where those beliefs came from, and why so much of it survived into living memory.

👭 Connect with like-minded people

📜 Explore the myths, beliefs and customs behind Irish folklore

🎓 Learn from world-leading experts in Irish folklore, history and folk religion

🕯️ A full day of online talks, Q&As and networking

Talk topics include:

Protecting the Home: Folklore and Irish Contemporary Art

Cures In Folklore- Irish witchcraft in the press 1700-1899

Folk Religion

Witch Lore

Join a curious, open-minded community for a day of history, storytelling and discussion. Come for the myths, leave understanding the people who kept them.

Speaker Bios:

Dr Tracy Fahey is an Irish author and academic. She holds a PhD in the Gothic and lectures in creative writing, folk horror and contemporary Gothic at the Limerick School of Art and Design, TUS. Her writing has been awarded the Rubery International Book Award, the Paul Cave Prize for Literature and a Saari Fellowship from the Kone Foundation, and her recent work explores the intersection between female folklore and midlife anxieties.

Dr Gillian Kenny is an Adjunct Associate Professor of History at University College Dublin and a Visiting Research Fellow at Trinity College Dublin's Centre for Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Her research focuses on women's lives in medieval and early modern Ireland and on people considered outsiders in the medieval world. She is the author of Anglo-Irish and Gaelic Women in Ireland, c.1170-1540 and has contributed to podcasts, television and print media on Irish history.

Dr Julia Phillips is Hons Senior Research Associate and lecturer at the University of Bristol. She received her PhD for her research examining how witches and witchcraft were featured in newspapers in Victorian Britain. Her work has been published in books, academic journals, and popular magazines, and she is a regular presenter at conferences and events. Her primary research interests are the study of witchcraft in the 19th century and the development of modern Pagan Witchcraft in the 20th/21st centuries.

Dr Deirdre Nuttall is a folklorist and ethnologist working in oral history, folk religion and narrative. She holds a Master's in Social Anthropology with a specialisation in the Anthropology of Religion from the University of Durham and a PhD in folklore from University College Dublin, with a focus on migratory legends of the supernatural. She has carried out field research in Ireland, Newfoundland and Guatemala. In 2020 her book A Folk History of the Protestants of Independent Ireland was one of the Irish Independent's Books of the Year.

This is a 16+ event.

If you need financial assistance, please email hello@seedtalks.co.uk

If you would like to submit a proposal to speak or exhibit at this event, please send an email to workwithus@seedtalks.co.uk

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